


Old Gods

by orphan_account



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Magic, God-fic, M/M, archeology
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-19
Updated: 2020-02-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 04:20:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22807729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Part 1: Tom is a budding archeologist trying to make a name for himself when he finds an ancient temple. Overjoyed, he thinks he’s hit the mother-load of all abandoned temples. What he was not expecting, was for the temple to still be inhabited.Part 2: Working in the museum late at night there were all kinds of horror stories about paranoia taking over and hallucinating shadows moving, but for the most part they remained horror stories, entertaining but far from the truth. That all changes when Harry is moved to guard the new exhibit of artifacts.
Relationships: Harry Potter/Tom Riddle, Harry Potter/Voldemort
Comments: 8
Kudos: 93





	1. Discovery

**Author's Note:**

> this is two stories rolled into one because I felt they were in the same genre/theme. I will be updating at least once a month if not more, but I make no guarantees outside of that. Once everything is published and properly edited I’ll probably condense it down to 2 chapters but for now it’s spread out. 
> 
> Part 1   
> Starts: Ch1  
> Ends: ???
> 
> Part 2  
> Starts: ???  
> Ends: ???
> 
> Contact me: mischievous-muses-en-route.tumblr.com

Despite being covered in a gross combination of sweat and mud, Tom couldn’t help but smile as triumph flowed through him. It had taken years, but he had finally achieved his goal. He found the lost temple and he did it without relying too much on the restrictive Slughorn Sponsorship that he accepted. The nearby landscape was unforgivable, humidity and altitude making a brutal combination, but Tom was able to keep his wits about him and was able to pace himself so he didn’t get too dehydrated or pass out because of the thin air.

Standing at the opening of the cave-temple entrance Tom quickly unpacked his camera, notepad, and his other necessary excavation and collection tools. He wouldn’t be able to carry a lot back with him, but he would need to bring back some form of physical proof of his discoveries.

Camera in hand, he quickly starts photographing the beautiful murals on the walls of the cave. Though some of the pillars and other pieces of architecture have been aged with time and fallen into disrepair the murals and writings on the wall seem miraculously intact and untouched by time.

The murals depict what seems to be a green eyed man that can turn into a majestic lion and perform blessing sand miracles. After making sure that the picture was in focus, Tom quickly took notes of what he could interpret of the story and wrote down the script that framed the mural. It was nothing that he’d ever seen before, it was not written in the script the natives used or any known script that their ancestors used either. Some of the hieroglyphs looked similarly shaped, but were not in an order that was translatable making Tom believe that perhaps that thehieroglyphs were adapted by the ancient natives but the meaning changed when it was adapted.

Tom stopped to continue admiring his find. It was like he had hit to proverbial jack-pot with this temple. It was fairly well maintained, and if his hypothesis about the hieroglyphics that lined the murals was correct, it was as old as sin, and he was able to find it when other more prestigious archeologists couldn’t. With this find he’d finally be able to escape the clutches of the Slughorn Sponsorship, pay off his student debt, and make an name for himself in the world of archeology.

Going further in the cave, Tom practically vibrated in excitement when he saw that there were multiple side chambers connected to what he had mentally dubbed the main enterance. In a temple like this, side chambers usually meant that priests were buried on site with jewels or other precious belongs that would allow Tom to be able to construct a more solid idea of what their beliefs and culture was like. After snapping several more photos, Tom decided to take the first side chamber on the right and was not disappointed to find several vases and jugs that were mostly intact and had stories painted on the side. Once again thankful that this temple was so well hidden from the eyes of greedy men and robbers, he carefully bagged and labeled some of the smaller jugs (after several more professional grade photos of course), Tom tore himself away from exploring every nook and cranny of this one room.

Vowing to be back to do a more through exploration of each and every chamber he could access, he moved on to the next ones and was delighted to find more of the same thing. After moving from room to room and documenting everything he came across, carefully packing up what little he could, Tom found himself at the end of the entrance cave. The natural daylight that filled the cave was enough to explore the rooms so far, but at the back of the cave-temple was a heavy circular stone door that was barely illuminated and covered in spiny ivy. Assuming Tom was able to clear the ivy off and somehow move the heavy door, he would need to use flashlight unless there was another source of light.

Glaring slightly at the overgrown ivy, Tom took out his machete at tried his best to clear the ivy off the door. The ivy vine, was anything but corporative. After lots of sweating, swearing, several small puncture wounds that the ivy’s spines was able to pierce into Tom despite his caution, and practically wrestling with the long vines of ivy, Tom slammed fist hand against the door in frustration, getting some blood on it from one of his many ivy related injuries. Sulking slightly at the fact that he was defeated by a plant, he almost didn’t notice the door opening on his own, as if move by some unknown force.


	2. Exploration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We finally meet harry in this chapter! He speaks in another language(that Tom can’t understand), which will be bolded and italicized, so keep an eye on that.   
> Hope you enjoy :)

Stunned, Tom stood in the doorway of an apparently functioning mechanical door. A breeze blew in sending shivers down his spine. Shaking himself out of his stupor, Tom began taking notes and photographs of the now open door. Unfortunately, the sunlight would not stretch beyond the door and darkness swallowed the interior. Pulling out his flashlight, Tom hesitates before moving onward. Was the door the first layer of traps that was supposed to ward off tomb robbers? He would have to proceed with extreme caution. His discoveries would be worthless if he stumbled into a trap and died there. Regardless, he was wanted to know what laid beyond.

The cavern sloped downward and the temperature quickly dropped, leaving him shivering. Watching his steps carefully Tom made has way downwards and was surprised at the of decor that lined the walls. Usually the deeper a tomb is explored the more ornate it is, usually holding the corpses of priests or jewels, and while Tom was overjoyed with his finds of clay jugs he couldn’t help but feel slightly disappointed that there was no other major finds.

Taking notes in his book at the lack of anything in the cave for the first hundred feet or so, he didn’t see where his feet were and managed to trip and fall. Hissing in pain, Tom quickly takes note of his injuries. He wasn’t too hurt, for it was a fall of his own fault not some complexpit trap, but his hands were still scraped up and his ankle was probably twisted when he landed on it. Breathing through his nose, Tom couldn’t help but feel frustrated with himself. So far nothing had injured him but his own stupidity and eagerness. Sitting on the floor for a few moments, gathering his thoughts, Tom forced himself to take it slow. He was already slightly injured and it would not do to get more injured.

Picking himself off the floor and standing carefully on his feet, making sure not to put too much of his weight on his twisted ankle, Tom continues going down the gentle slope of the cave. Finally reaching the end of the tunnel, he came across another stone door, this time with a roaring lion carved in the front of it. Luckily, it was not covered in that damned ivy. After taking a couple of pictures (trying and struggling to get the lighting right) he pushed on the door, and to his great relief, it easily swung open on its own, just like the first one did.

Shining the flashlight in the room he gasped at the beauty it held. The walls were line with vivid murals, even more intact than the ones at the enterance, and the room held beautifully carved stone caskets with an ornately painted one held up on a dais away from all the others. Making a note of the placement of the caskets, as well as his theories that a high ranking priest was held on the dais with his slaves and subordinates surrounding him, Tom carefully walked towards the middle one.

A beautiful carved face decorated the casket, red loincloth painted on and vibrant green leaves twisted around the sides. Tom was positioning the flashlight and the camera it focus on the details, when he nearly dropped his supplies hearing something loud banging noise. Looking around he couldn’t see anything out of place or fallen over. Was there a cave in at the enterance. Tom took a step away from the casket, and was about to go back out to see if he could find what made that noise, when the horrible scraping noise of stone on stone came from behind him.

Slowly turning back towards the decorated casket, Tom watched in shock as the lid was being pushed off before clattering to the ground making the ground shake with a dull thud. Now free of the stone lid, a lean tanned man sat up in the casket and looked around. After a moment of silence, the man snapped his fingers and torches that Tom didn’t notice lining the ceiling suddenly flared to life. The man grinned before stretching, pulling his arms above his head until his back popped, showing off his tribal tattoos, before he let out a pleased sigh.

Throwing his legs of the edge of the casket, the man stood, and smiled widely as he took note of Tom’s stunned presence before speaking in a language Tom never heard before.

_**“Hello, child. Have you been sent to wake me?”** _

After a few beats of silence, Tom realized that the man was waiting for him to respond, and said a tentative “Hello.”

The man frowned slightly at his response, before speaking again. **_“Have the elders not taught you how to speak yet? Or are you a foreigner?”_**

“Um.” Absolutely stunned, Tom found himself at a loss for words a the beautiful man sighed and walked over to him. Now standing in front of him, Tom could easily see the green of his eyes, though he found himself struggling to meet them. The man sniffed the air slightly before speaking in that enchanting tongue again.

_**“You smell of blood. Are you hurt?”** _

Tom, still frozen and uncomprehending continued staring at the man, before slowly lifting his camera and taking a picture. If he was going insane, and just hallucinated a man come out of a stone coffin (that weighed at least a hundred pounds) then it wouldn’t show up on the picture. With shaking hands he used the camera wheel to look at the picture he just took. And sure enough standing in the middle of a previously unlit chamber was a tanned muscled man, covered in tribal tattoos wearing nothing but a red loincloth and jewelry.

The man, apparently not satisfied with his non-answer, reached out and touched him and Tom felt a pleasant tingling take over his entire body, and he could only stare in awe as the cuts he sustained from the ivy vanished and his ankle stopped hurting. Pleased with himself the man nodded once, before moving behind Tom to look at the camera.

_**“There we go, much better. What are you looking at so intensely child?”** _

With the man standing directly behind him, Tom’s brain (finally) kicked into gear. He went into the lost cave temple that no one was able to successfully find. He documented his discoveries before opening a door that led downward. Then he got hurt, before opening a second door. That door led to a chamber filled with corpses and one non-corpse who could apparently heal through touch.

No one back at the lab was ever going to believe him, even with the photograph. Shoulders straightening, Tom resolved to take him back to Britain with him. If nothing else he would provide good insight on what was in cave and the script on the wall.

_**“How did you make a portrait of me that quickly?! And that realistic too!”** _

Though he’d need to break the language barrier first.


End file.
